American Go E-Journal

WINTERGO GREW: More than 120 attended the 2009 Wintergo December 27 through January 1 in Overasselt near the Dutch-German border. With top teachers like Yoon Young-sun 5P and Rob van Zeijst 7d, the focus was more on learning and exploring, although competition was fierce in the morning rounds. With a larger kitchen, culinary possiblities improved, culminating in a sushi diner at New Year’s Eve. Willem-Koen Pomstra 5d introduced the idea of go-camps in Holland. He summarized its history for the EJ: “Summergo was invented by accident by Martin Stiassny (currently President of EGF), who wanted to celebrate his birthday for a few days with friends near his Summer residence in Leksand, Sweden. I attended. Many more came back next years and soon it grew into a full EGC there (2008). I copied the idea for Holland and we wanted soon something similar in Winter too.” – Peter Dijkema

EUROPEAN SUMMARY: Pair (Annemarie de Putter 1k and Bram Koster 4d), clubteam (The Hague) and 1st senior (Robert Rehm 5d) titles in Holland; current champs (Viktor Lin, Manuala Leitner) confirm titles, while old champ (Alfred Nimmerrichter) passed away in Austria; Chun 8p defeats MoGo in Barcelona, next signs up as 4th (!) audio-teacher for KILL of Alex Dinerchtein 3p, which started punctually on January 1st, when co-teacher Ilya Shiksin 7d defeated 6 students in a simul; Ion Florescu 6d won JAC in Bucarest (Rom); Fan Hui 8d swept Pandanet Lille (France). See the full articles in the news and archive of EuroGoTV.com- Peter Dijkema

MORE NEWS FROM EUROPE: On EuroGOTV there are many more illustrated tournament reports from late December (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Spain), as well as (p)reviews of books by John Fairbairn, several winter holiday number puzzles and the tale of the Caledonian Canal Rengo (taken from the German mag DGZ). – Peter Dijkema